The deets:

• Cafe Medici on Congress in Austin
• 2:00pm

• Soy vanilla latte for her and an Americano for me

Background: My social media guru friend, Jill gave me Shennandoah’s name and email and told me I needed to meet this gal.  Turns out they connected via Twitter (how very 2012) so there you go.

After such a wonderful first cup, I wondered if the second cup could live up to its predecessor. I’m happy to say, this cup was fantastic! My feeling is, each will be so unique that comparing them won’t be possible or necessary.

Shennandoah is one cool chick!  And after visiting for nearly two hours, I walked away with a head full of unasked questions.  Not because she wouldn’t have answered them (she’s an open book), but simply because I suspect after being drilled for hours, one grows weary of being “interviewed”.  You only need to look to an episode of 48 Hours Mystery where the guy confesses to a murder he didn’t commit (presumably) to see what I’m talking about.  People break under the tension.  I liked her too much for that to happen, so I decided to save them up for next time.

Shennandoah and I only explored the tip of the tip of the tip of the iceberg.  But I got enough to be left in awe of her as a mother, a sister, a friend and a social activist.  Here’s what I know.

Struggle was a common theme coursing through our conversation.  She shied away from sharing details, but when talking about her teenage years she blushed as she searched for a delicate way of telling a virtual stranger she was a bit of a “good girl gone bad”- her words.  Something we all can relate to on some level – mistakes made along the way of becoming the people we are today.  It’s the human experience.  But the details of which are often not the stuff we brag about.  I didn’t push.

Twenty-one.  An age when Shennandoah should have been experiencing the frivolity of youth, she was instead experiencing extreme poverty and homelessness.  By 23 she found herself the unwed mother of an infant daughter. When asked what the best mistake she ever made was, this moment in time is what she described.  She had an idea of the kind of mother she wanted to be, knew she was capable of being and her baby deserved.  But as she looked at her situation, she was painfully aware of how far apart that ideal and her reality were.  She decided in that moment to change everything.  She got back into college, worked her ass off while taking 15-18 credits each semester and taking care of a baby and rose above the situation.

Later on when I asked her what story she finds herself telling the most, she said it is this story of her evolution as a mother that gets shared most often.  Largely because it was a defining moment in her life and is the backdrop to virtually any story she tells.  Perhaps most surprisingly so, professionally speaking.

Shennandoah has a mission in her career to empower people.  She believes, based on her experience as well as research she did when working on her Economics degree, that private businesses are the best agents for change.  She says, “Private enterprise is better able to address social issues than government or NGOs.”  Having been a homeless, single mother on welfare, she has a unique vantage point that most of those in public office making decisions are fortunate to know nothing of.  And yet they wield the power.